Bagelstein (Paris, France)

Bagelstein is a chain of bagel eateries all over France. They started to expand abroad, with a few locations in Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Germany. The bagel itself has an interesting history, they are thought to have been brought by Polish Jews to the US (Specifically New York) where they became a staple*.

The first time I visited Bagelstein was a long time ago, in Grenoble, after a hike for which I was totally ill-prepared. It was one of the first times I had a bagel, which was not that common in France around that time. I really liked the bagel and I remember the fun and unusual decor.

Bagels! Almost all are vegan!

Fast-forward to last month. I kind of forgot about Bagelstein until I visted Paris a few weeks ago, and I noticed several Bagelsteins. Somehow I had lived in Paris for years without noticing this! Time to correct this oversight and test some bagels.

As mentioned, Bagelstein has a quirky kind of decor, with a fake family tree on the wall and signs that say “Men who enter here are never seen again” or something along those lines. For those familiar with Subway, ordering is a bit similar. You pick the type of bagel you want, (all but one are vegan) and the staff will prepare your bagel directly at the counter. There are standard bagels ‘recipes’, of which none is vegan. But you can also construct your own bagel with the ingredients available: there’s veggies like onions and tomatoes and several sauces. After that you bagel is wrapped and ready to eat. There’s also soups, but I don’t think those are vegan. For drinks there’s coffee, teas, soda’s and milk shakes.

Salty bagel with veggies and sweet bagel with speculoos !

Nice surprise, they have a “dessert”. While there are a lot of non-vegan pastries, there’s also a “dessert bagel” which is a bagel with a sweet spread, such as peanut butter, nutella and speculoos spread . I am not sure about the peanut butter, but it might be vegan. The speculoos spread is surely vegan 🙂